Collateral Blessings: Lessons from Harvey about Trauma, Recovery, and Spiritual Community

James Lomax, MD, Associate Chairman and Director of Educational Programs, Baylor College of Medicine

A.Genre: This presentation reflects a type of work illustrating how life experiences influence therapeutic (and educational) capacity.

B.The first part of the presentation will consist of my experiences just before, during, and after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston. Something like 150,000 Houstonians were displaced. Nearly a half million cars lost in only a few days. Natural disasters often produce trauma in survivors and what Pargament and others have conceptualized as “spiritual struggles.”

C.The third portion will be about the “lessons” that I learned or were reinforced for me by Harvey. I will attempt to specify connections between those lessons and some more traditionally communicated teaching contributions from 26 previous Psychotherapy and Faith Conferences. ​D.A final, short portion will be some professional and personal “products” of Harvey from the perspective of this clinician educator including the ways in which I think Harvey will inform and potentially enhance the next chapter of my professional and personal lives.